Cédric Courtois

Player identification in online games: validation of a scale for measuring identification in MMOGs

This article proposes a scale for measuring player identification in massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs). Three dimensions have been derived from the literature, avatar identification, group identification, and game identification, whereby avatar identification is a second-order factor consisting of similarity identification, wishful identification, and embodied presence. Based on the results of a cross-sectional survey of 544 World of Warcraft players, the measurement instruments proposed factorial structure was confirmed and the constructs were successfully tested for convergent validity. Subsequently, support for nomological validity was gathered by testing nine theoretically rooted hypotheses linking the identification constructs to motivations for playing MMOGs. The results show that avatar identification is positively associated with roleplay, customization, and escapism; group identification with socializing and relationship; and game identification with escapism, discovery, advancement, and mechanics. These findings indicate that the Player Identification Scale provides a reliable measure of identification in online games ready to be used and further validated in subsequent research.

Internet Skills, Sources of Support, and Benefiting From Internet Use

This study added communication Internet skills to an existing skill framework of operational, formal, information, and strategic skills. The study investigated how people deal with inadequate skill levels by identifying support sources. Furthermore, we investigated which of the Internet skills actually matter for attaining beneficial Internet outcomes and whether support sources employed moderate these effects. Results of a large-scale survey revealed three support patterns: independents, social support seekers, and formal help seekers. The newly added communication skills prove to be an important addition because they have an independent effect on beneficial Internet use. The group of independent Internet users benefited more from Internet use than formal help seekers and much more than social support seekers. Internet communication skills hold the potential for achieving a high degree of independence in using the Internet by compensating for information skills so as to attain beneficial Internet outcomes.

What’s APPening to news? A mixed-method audience-centred study on mobile news consumption

News is increasingly being consumed on a multitude of media devices, including mobile devices. In recent years, mobile news consumption has permeated individuals’ news consumption repertoires. The main purpose of this study is twofold: (a) gain insight in how mobile news outlets infiltrated the broader news media repertoires of mobile device owners and (b) understand in what circumstances mobile news is consumed within these news media repertoires. The key is to understand how and why this widening agency in appropriating various places and social spaces in everyday life relates to general news media consumption (Peters, 2012). This two-phased study aims to illuminate how mobile device owners position their mobile news consumption in relation to other types of news media outlets. First, a guiding cluster analysis of a large-scale questionnaire (N = 1279) was performed, indicating three types of news consumers. Second, in order to thicken the originally derived clusters, a mixed-method study was set up, combining objective data originating from mobile device logs with more subjective audience constructions through personal diaries and face-to-face interviews (N = 30). This study reveals the Janus-faced nature of mobile news. On the one hand, the majority of news consumers dominantly relies on traditional media outlets to stay informed, only to supplement with online mobile services in specific circumstances. Even then, there is at least a tendency to stick to trusted brand materials. On the other hand, these mobile news outlets/products do seem to increasingly infiltrate the daily lives of mobile audiences who were previously disengaged with news.

Student acceptance of tablet devices in secondary education: A three-wave longitudinal cross-lagged case study

Abstract As ICT is increasingly permeating all aspects of everyday life, it is apparent that education cannot leap behind. In this article we longitudinally investigate a much-debated obligatory full-scale implementation of tablet devices in a large secondary school. We adopt a Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) approach to verify the dynamic nature of students’ acceptance of the tablet as a learning tool at three waves of data collection, both at pre- and short and long-term post-adoption stages. The results clearly indicate the evolutionary nature of the acceptance process, challenging the adequacy of cross-sectional approaches to technology adoption. In the pre-adoption stage, attitude appears as a key uptake factor, whereas three months later, due to practical and technical constraints, the attention shifts to subjective norm and perceived behavioral control. Finally, six months after introduction indicative traces of habituation appear, raising concerns on the suitability of the TPB in established post-adoption circumstances.

When News is Everywhere: Understanding participation, cross-mediality and mobility in journalism from a radical user perspective

This article contends that not only journalism but also journalism studies can benefit from a stronger commitment to the public. While the bodies of literature on “popular journalism”, “public journalism” and “citizen/participatory journalism” have, in different contexts and from different angles, made a strong case in favour of a public-oriented approach to journalism, it is remarkable how few of the empirical studies on journalism are based on user research. As the control of media institutions over the news process is in decline, we should take the “news audience” more seriously and try to improve our understanding of (changing) news use patterns. Besides this rather obvious theoretical point, there are also societal and methodological arguments for a more user-oriented take on the study of journalism. Starting from a reflection on the key trends in news use in the digital age—participation, cross-mediality and mobility—this article attempts to show the theoretical and societal relevance of a radical user perspective on journalism and journalism research alike. Furthermore, we look at new methodological opportunities for news user research and elaborate on our arguments by way of an empirical study on changing news practices. The study uses Q-sort methodology to expose the impact a mediums affordances can have on the way we experience news in a converged and mobile media environment. The article concludes by discussing what the benefits of a radical user perspective can be both for journalism studies as for journalism.

With a little help from my friends: An analysis of the role of social support in digital inequalities:

This article reports an empirical study on the composition and socio-economic background of social support networks and their moderating role in explaining digital inequalities. It conceptually draws upon and empirically reaffirms Van Dijk’s multiple access model, acknowledging motivational, material, skill and usage divides, while focussing on the under-researched issue of social support as indispensible source of social learning. Besides a small group of self-reliants, the results indicate a pattern of relatively socially disadvantaged domestic support receivers, characterized by lower digital resources. A second social support pattern points to a relatively socially advantaged non-domestic support receivers (i.e. friends/colleagues), high in digital resources. Drawing upon the concept of homophily in social networks, the results indicate a link between offline and online exclusion, perpetuating digital inequalities.

Player identification in online games: validation of a scale for measuring identification in MMORPGs

In this paper, we present a Player Identification (PI) scale for measuring identification in MMORPGs. Three main dimensions were derived from the literature (1) Avatar (character) Identification, (2) Group (guild) Identification and (3) Game (community) Identification whereby Avatar Identification is a second-order factor consisting of (1a) Perceived Similarity, (1b) Wishful Identification and (1c) Embodied Presence. Based on the results of a cross-sectional survey of 544 World of Warcraft players the measurement instruments proposed factorial structure was confirmed. Subsequently, the constructs were successfully tested both for convergent and discriminant validity. Finally, evidence for nomological validity was gathered by testing ten theoretically rooted hypotheses regarding the effects of Player Identification. The results showed that Avatar Identification positively predicts Empathy, Proteus effect and the motivations role-play, customization and escapism. Group Identification predicts socializing and relationship, and Game Identification predicts advancement, mechanics and escapism.

How to be a gamer! Exploring personal and social indicators of gamer identity

Over the past decades, digital games have continued to extend their audience as they moved into the cultural mainstream. Despite this fact, however, only a portion of those who play games consider themselves a gamer. Drawing on insights from social identity theory, this study explores the factors that contribute to why people attribute a gamer identity to self or others. It does so by considering 2 sites of identity construction: the social context of players and the broader cultural milieu. Results suggest that a gamer identity is first and foremost associated with stereotypical behaviors that find their origin in a consumption logic. Friendship networks, however, provide an important environment in which a gamer identity can be performed.

The Triple Articulation of Media Technologies in Audiovisual Media Consumption

This article departs from the concept of “double articulation” within domestication theory, which views media as both objects and texts. Unfortunately, its empirical application has been problematic because researchers tend to concentrate on the contextual, losing sight of specific meanings of objects and texts. Therefore, we subscribe to the concept of “triple articulation,” viewing the immediate sociospatial context of consumption as a specific articulation. Still, the practical relevance of this concept has been questioned. Therefore, we develop and test a methodology that explicitly incorporates this triple articulation in the field of convergent audiovisual media consumption. The results indicate that audiovisual media technologies are meaningfully articulated as objects, texts, and contexts. Moreover, the devised method, which allows the uncovering of articulation interactions, points out that each articulation is able to contribute independently to consumption meanings. Hence, the variation within objects, texts, and contexts raises questions about what we consider “television.”

A user-centric evaluation of context-aware recommendations for a mobile news service

Traditional recommender systems provide personal suggestions based on the user’s preferences, without taking into account any additional contextual information, such as time or device type. The added value of contextual information for the recommendation process is highly dependent on the application domain, the type of contextual information, and variations in users’ usage behavior in different contextual situations. This paper investigates whether users utilize a mobile news service in different contextual situations and whether the context has an influence on their consumption behavior. Furthermore, the importance of context for the recommendation process is investigated by comparing the user satisfaction with recommendations based on an explicit static profile, content-based recommendations using the actual user behavior but ignoring the context, and context-aware content-based recommendations incorporating user behavior as well as context. Considering the recommendations based on the static profile as a reference condition, the results indicate a significant improvement for recommendations that are based on the actual user behavior. This improvement is due to the discrepancy between explicitly stated preferences (initial profile) and the actual consumption behavior of the user. The context-aware content-based recommendations did not significantly outperform the content-based recommendations in our user study. Context-aware content-based recommendations may induce a higher user satisfaction after a longer period of service operation, enabling the recommender to overcome the cold-start problem and distinguish user preferences in various contextual situations.